Getting userDir to work in apache

[Gregg Bolinger]

I know this isn't java related but I am having a problem getting the UserDir to work in apache. I have it set to UserDir /www/public_html and then when I access my web server via http://ethought.com/~gdboling/index.html or http://ethought.com/~gdboling/www/public_html/index.html
It is not working. But the web server is working fine with everything else.
Is there something I am missing?

[Andrew Monkhouse]

Hi Gregg
The directive you are looking for should be:

UserDir public_html

From the sample configuration file normally provided with Apache:

# UserDir: The name of the directory that is appended onto a user's home
# directory if a ~user request is received.
#
# The path to the end user account 'public_html' directory must be
# accessible to the webserver userid.  This usually means that ~userid
# must have permissions of 711, ~userid/public_html must have permissions
# of 755, and documents contained therein must be world-readable.
# Otherwise, the client will only receive a "403 Forbidden" message.
#
# See also: <a href="http://httpd.apache.org/docs/misc/FAQ.html#forbidden" target="_blank" rel="nofollow">http://httpd.apache.org/docs/misc/FAQ.html#forbidden</a>

If you are using Apache 2.x, you should also ensure that you dont have the UserDir disable directive.
Regards, Andrew

[Gregg Bolinger]

Originally posted by Andrew Monkhouse:
Hi Gregg
If you are using Apache 2.x, you should also ensure that you dont have the UserDir disable directive.

I think this might be my problem. Thanks Andrew, I will let you know...

[Gregg Bolinger]

Well, I added the UserDir enabled gdboling and now I am getting a Forbidden: You don't have permissions to access /~gdboling/index.html on this server.
So I added under my UserDir public_html
<directory>
.....
</directory>
To allow access as read only. Basically just had to uncomment thos lines that were already set for me by default.
Any more suggestions?

[Andrew Monkhouse]

Hi Gregg,
My entire set of directives are:

<IfModule mod_userdir.c>
    #
    # UserDir is disabled by default since it can confirm the presence
    # of a username on the system (depending on home directory
    # permissions).
    #
    # ADM UserDir disable
    #
    # To enable requests to /~user/ to serve the user's public_html
    # directory, remove the "UserDir disable" line above, and uncomment
    # the following line instead:
    # 
    UserDir public_html
</IfModule>
#
# Control access to UserDir directories.  The following is an example
# for a site where these directories are restricted to read-only.
##<Directory /home/*/public_html>
#    AllowOverride FileInfo AuthConfig Limit
#    Options MultiViews Indexes SymLinksIfOwnerMatch IncludesNoExec
#    <Limit GET POST OPTIONS>
#        Order allow,deny
#        Allow from all
#    </Limit>
#    <LimitExcept GET POST OPTIONS>
#        Order deny,allow
#        Deny from all
#    </LimitExcept>
#</Directory>

I have not bothered to uncomment the /home/*/public_html directory settings.
My permissions are:

drwxr-xr-x    9 root     root         4096 Jan 25 10:52 /home
drwxr-xr-x   61 andrewm  andrewm      8192 Jul  2 13:45 /home/andrewm
drwxrwxr-x    5 andrewm  andrewm      4096 Apr 28 23:35 /home/andrewm/public_html
-rw-rw-r--    1 andrewm  andrewm      1069 May 11  2002 /home/andrewm/public_html/index.html

And this works for me: I can acces my personal web page using the http://192.168.1.1/~andrewm/ address.
What does your error log show at the time you try to access your personal web page?
Regards, Andrew